The Secret Content Marketing Ingredient: Personalization

Netflix revealed its users lose interest in as little as 60 seconds if they aren’t presented with relevant, personalized and engaging recommendations. The company said it could lose more than $1 billion in revenue each year if it didn’t have a sophisticated personalized recommendation engine, as per the Accenture Personalization Pulse Check 2016 study.

In fact, the ability to create content unique to each individual has become a high-stakes game for brands in the digital age. Because almost everyone is churning out content, consumers are overwhelmed when they’re trying to make a decision.

The challenge therefore is to produce content that rises above the noise and connects with the audience on a different level. It’s now the responsibility of brands to help their customers navigate the endless sea of options by giving them content that’s relevant, personal and engaging.

Why is personalization important in content marketing?

Today’s consumers are leading hyper-connected, digitally-driven lives. They experience the majority of content and ads while they’re on the go, multitasking and engaging in multiscreen behavior. They are constructing their own identities more freely than ever without any regard for ‘traditional’ demographic conventions; in fact, they are being defined by their digital behavior. The consumer you’re advertising to today is NOT the same consumer you were targeting in the 1960s, 1990s or even until a couple of years ago.

Welcome to—what is known as—post-demographic consumerism, a term coined by TrendWatching.com in its 2014 report. These modern consumers can range from a video-games obsessed fashion designer who loves Beethoven to a 60-year-old artist hooked onto Breaking Bad. What’s driving this post-demographic consumerism trend is technology. People today have access to a sea of information thanks to the internet; this influences their opinions, interests and perspectives.

To create relevant content for today’s consumer, marketers need to look beyond demographic and behavioral data and genuinely understand their audience’s preferences, needs, and passions. Only then will they be able to pique their audience’s interest by creating content that is tailored to their individual interests and needs. In fact, a Demand Metric study from 2016 found that 80% of marketers say personalized content is more effective than “unpersonalized” content.

How psychographic data can help you create a personalized approach

Personalization begins with a data-driven approach to content creation by looking beyond demographics, and using richer insights to understand the attitudes and motivations of your target audience. You need a more holistic picture of your audience’s motivations, interests, purchase drivers and values. This is where psychographics comes in.

Psychographics is not a new concept. Psychographic data includes your audience’s hobbies, behaviors, attitudes, values, and more. Psychographics is, essentially, a technique used to describe consumers based on their psychological attributes.

Psychographics tells you why people buy, why they make the choices they do, and what appeals to them on a personal level. Psychographics—together with demographics—is a powerful insights-driven approach to defining your audience and reaching them.

It’s time to stop thinking of your audience as part of some homogenous group, and instead use psychographics to create personalized content.

To know more about how psychographics can power your marketing, head here.